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Knowledge From a lesson by Alan Hitchen 2 Peter 1:5-7 "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love" In
Your Virtue, Knowledge The
importance of Peter’s opening comments of his final epistle cannot be
stressed strongly enough. In ten short verses (1:2-11), he summarizes the
entire New Covenant. He explains God’s part of this covenant in 2-4 and
8-11 and man’s side in 5-7. Peter’s words which condense the New
Covenant so eloquently can all be summed up under one thought. Draw
near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8 God
promises: Grace
and peace will be multiplied to us; His
divine power grants all things necessary; We
have precious and exceeding great promises; We
will be partakers of the divine nature; We
will escape the corruption of this world. God
cannot lie! When He makes a Covenant, He is faithful to keep it! What He
promises, He delivers! We believe this so strongly that when we hear,
believe, repent, confess, and are baptized, we know we are saved!
Peter’s point in this passage will be that we can keep on doing this for
the rest of our lives by adding seven things to our faith.
in
our faith supply virtue If
we will do all the above, God promises to do the following for us: If
we listen to Him and add on our own part He will do all that is necessary
to make sure we will: In
Your Faith Supply Virtue The
first thing God wants us to our faith is a strong desire for excellence.
He wants us to be intense about our side of the covenant. Like Abraham who
always did everything the next day, or David who was a man after God’s
own heart, and did things exactly as God wanted them done. It is wanting
to do on earth as it is done in heaven. We need to be adding this to our
faith. In
Your Virtue, Knowledge When
we are traveling to an area that we have never been before, we always get
a road map. When we purchase
a new product, we want an owners manual to study, when we are cooking
something for the first time, we want the exact recipe. When we are taking
something apart, we want a repair manual to guide us through it. Such
things are so obvious that we seldom think about them. We know our
limitations, we accept them, and we seek to overcome them. This is the
very essence of wisdom and living a successful life. It is also the reason
God wants us to add knowledge to our faith. We have never passed through
life before, we have never been servants of God before. We need a road
map, an owners manual, a recipe, and a repair manual. O
LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks
to direct his own steps. Jer
10:23 There
is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Prov 14:12 "Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there
are few who find it. Mt 7:14 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 These
passages should cause our virtue to turn to excellence in this realm. Life
is so infinitely complicated. The
intricacy of the physical universe only dimly reflects the complexity of
the spiritual. A careful
study of physics and chemistry manifests the complexity of the physical
creation. When it is
understood, dominion can be taken. Those
who have mastered these subjects have greatly contributed to the
prosperity and comfort of our physical life.
Such efforts to understand God’s great wisdom seldom go
unrewarded. This is illustrative of the spiritual realm.
Just as there are those who go to college for 4 years, do graduate
studies for 2-4 years, and then continue to learn in their field, so must
the Christian feel toward learning God’s word. God
exhorts us and challenges us over and over to seek for an accurate
knowledge of Scripture: Give
diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.
II Tim. 2:15 14
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been
assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from
childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you
wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 15 Every
scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of
God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
II Tim. 3:16 1
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all
evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that
you may grow thereby I Pet 2:1-2
13
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; 14
For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than
fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may
desire cannot compare with her. 16 Length of days is in her right hand, in
her left hand riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold
of her, and happy are all who retain her.
Prov 3:13-18 How
do we gain such knowledge? God exhorts us to faithfully attend classes and
sermons in Heb 10:23-25. He exhorts us to read, meditate and learn.
He told Joshua how to do this: This
book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate
on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all
that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and
then you will have success. Josh 1:8 The
writer of the 119th Psalm also understood it.
Do we understand this yet? 24
Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors... 97 Oh, how I
love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 You, through Your
commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. 99
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are
my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep
Your precepts. Ps 119:24, 97-104 5
Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words
of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her,
and she will keep you. 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get
wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she
will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. 9 She
will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will
deliver to you.’ Prov
4:5-9
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